Ulm: Autobahns, Hotel Mysteries, and a Helicopter Surprise

It was bucketing down rain all the way to Ulm. I knew it was going to be a two-hour and 40-minute drive, but I hadn’t accounted for the roadworks and accidents, which pushed our arrival time to just over three hours and 15 minutes. Even when sitting on 135 km/h, vehicles still passed me like I was standing still! I love these highways; I just wish it hadn’t been raining so I could have opened up the Volkswagen a little bit more.

White-Knuckle Driving

Ulm wasn’t originally on our itinerary; it was just a place to drop off the car before catching the train to Salzburg. If we could have caught a connecting train this afternoon, we probably would have taken it. However, Ulm is a lovely city, and I’m so glad we’re staying overnight.

Once we got into the city, there were roadworks everywhere, and I could not find my way off this frigging roundabout. I went around it twice and kept missing the turn. The original plan was to drop Leanne at the hotel and then drop the car off myself, but I’d had enough. I cracked it and said, “Just find me Europcar please!” What should have been a four-minute drive had already taken twenty, and I was still no closer. I was starting to lose it, grinding my teeth with white knuckles gripped around the steering wheel again.

We finally made it! Once the paperwork was complete, I had the Europcar office call us a taxi and we were out of there.

The Ulm Hotel Mystery: A Fawlty Towers Moment

We checked our luggage in at the hotel called "Hotel Goldenes Rad" (which, mind you, is very nice and central), but since our room wasn't ready yet, we headed out to the old town for lunch—The taxi driver, who was a friendly fellow pointed out the Old Town for us.

The beautiful old town in Ulm used to be the fishermen's and tanners' quarters. With its running stream and an old mill wheel churning away, it’s incredibly picturesque. We found an Italian restaurant with a lovely outlook over the mill and water, so we settled in there for lunch.

After a lovely lunch we made our way back to the hotel to check in, and the guy who had taken our bags earlier recognized us. “Guten Tag, Name please?” he asked. I gave him our surname, and as he tapped away at the keyboard, he looked up and said, “No booking.” I then gave him my full name. “Still no booking,” he replied with a straight face.

I looked at Leanne, knowing full well we had booked this through Qantas on points. He kept insisting, “Sorry, you don’t have a booking.” After a bit more back-and-forth, he came back and straight out said, “It was canceled.” I then asked, “When? Because we didn’t cancel it!”

“It was canceled March 3rd” he blurted with a completely straight face. For a moment I thought "Am I checking into Fawlty Towers?" and was I dealing with Basil Fawlty? I looked around and expected Manuel to appear, and I stood there thinking, WTF is going on here? In the end, it was obvious the booking was cancelled, but I had no clue by whom. Luckily, Basil had a room available for the night, which we ended up having to pay for, and I'll worry about Qantas later.

After receiving our room key and throwing all our gear in, we headed back downstairs to the lounge. Armed with my iPad under my arm, I was determined to find out what the hell was going on and who had cancelled it.

I scrolled back to March 3rd and, sure enough, there was an email from Qantas saying, “You have successfully cancelled your booking.” Leanne and I had some "friendly banter" over how this email was missed—well, it wasn’t really missed, as it was already marked as read.

Then, the memory hit us. We remembered we had been thinking about adding an extra night to Salzburg and skipping the stay in Ulm altogether. We (and yes, that includes Leanne!) must have cancelled the accommodation, got distracted, and simply failed to follow through with the new plan. Lesson learnt, finish what you are doing before going out for drinks.

Drama in the Square: An Unexpected Medivac Landing

Out for dinner we went, and wandering back, we decided to grab a coffee because the hotel's was crap. We found a nice Italian place with an actual barista called Ciao Bella Ulm Münsterplatz—they are few and far between here, as most coffee we’ve found comes out of a "push and pour" machine where they just hit a number and it spits it out. There’s a great business opportunity here for a proper barista and a coffee van!

As we stepped out of the café, about four police cars with sirens blaring swerved into the main church square. They were squawking over their PA systems, screaming something I couldn’t understand—my German is limited to about five words—and then Police started jumping out and dragging chairs away from the centre of the square and waving people away

The sirens were still bleeping as people began running for the shops to evacuate the area. I didn't know whether this was a bomb threat or not. Next thing I know, there’s a chopper buzzing overhead and circling. Within a few minutes, it landed right there, blowing over chairs, tables and a few umbrellas. Leanne had taken off somewhere behind me while I was filming the excitement; my hat blew off, and I had no idea where it ended up, but I was thinking, "I'm not going to miss this!"

After the chopper landed, an ambulance pulled up right next to it. A doctor or medivac person jumped out of the helicopter and into the ambulance, and they took off with sirens wailing. How exciting! All this happened within five minutes. We’re not sure what it was all about—could have been dropping off a doctor, or maybe vital organs—we’ll never know.

That’s our day in Ulm. Tomorrow, we catch a train to Salzburg. Let's see if it’s as exciting as today was!

The following morning, before heading off we had a terrific breakfast in a little Sicilian Café called SPRESSO Caffébar Cucina - Ulm which is just behind the Ulm Minster

Just because it say 3hrs, you still need to add in road works and accidents